1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system such as a patent mapping system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an information processing system, a retrieval is performed upon a huge amount of information in a database to obtain the tendency of the information. Particularly, in a patent information processing system, a patent mapping apparatus is essential.
In a patent map obtained by a first prior art patent mapping apparatus (see JP-A-11-15833), a map having an abscissa indicating International Patent Classifications (IPCs) and an ordinate indicating manufacturing fields and processes is prepared. That is, the number of patent publications is calculated for each IPC and each of the manufacturing fields and processes, and then, one circle having a diameter showing the number of patent publications is depicted at each intersection between the IPCs and the manufacturing fields and processes, thus visually indicating the number of patent publications. This will be explained later in detail.
In the above-described first prior art patent mapping apparatus, however, it is impossible to time-sequentially indicate the patent publications.
In a second prior art patent mapping apparatus (see FIG. 7 of JP-A-8-221435), a diagram having an abscissa indicating years and an ordinate indicating the number of patent publications for a certain number of companies is generated. That is, the number of patent publications per year can be visually indicated. This also will be explained later in detail.
In the above-described second prior art patent mapping apparatus, however, it is impossible to easily indicate the tendency of the number of patent publications for each company to increase or decrease.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing system such as a patent mapping system capable of indicating the tendency of the number of information sets to increase or decrease.
According to the present invention, in an information processing system, an information storing unit stores a plurality of main information sets along with time information sets. A retrieval condition input unit input retrieval conditions for the main information sets. A retrieval execution unit performs a retrieval upon the main information sets along with the time information sets by using the retrieval conditions. A cell output information generating unit receives retrieved main information sets along with the time information sets and generates a number of the main information sets and a tendency of the number of the main information sets which changes with respect to time for each cell defined by the retrieval conditions. A cell output unit outputs each of the cells and displays each of the cells at a location on a matrix designated by the retrieval conditions.